1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information playback apparatus which play back audio information such as music selections or sounds supplied from sources such as CDs (Compact Discs) or DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs). More particularly, the present invention relates to an information playback apparatus which indicates the status of playback of audio information or features contained in the audio information.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Application No. 2001-152227, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, information playback apparatus such as CD players or DVD players are designed to indicate various pieces of information, such as the status of playback of audio information, on the display while playing back audio information which is stored in CDs or DVDs.
For example, it is commonly practiced to display in digital form the elapsed track time indicative of the playback elapsed time of a music selection being currently played back or the remaining time of playback of the music selection being currently played back.
That is, suppose that a music selection of a plurality of music selections stored on a musical CD is being played back. In this case, for example, when the elapsed time from the starting point of the music selection is two minutes and 30 seconds, a numerical indication of elapsed track time “2:30” is provided. In addition, when the music selection requires a total of playback time of three minutes, a numerical indication of the remaining time of 30 seconds is provided as “0:30.”
Accordingly, the user can look at the indication of elapsed track time which varies every moment, thereby allowed to know the status of playback of the audio information. That is, since the numerical values indicating the elapsed track time vary every moment, the user can look at the variations in numerical value changing every moment, thereby allowed to know the status of playback of the audio information.
It is also commonly practiced to display the frequency characteristics of playback sounds which are produced by playing back audio information, thereby providing the user with the feature of the frequencies contained in the playback sound. That is, the frequency spectrum of playback sounds is displayed over the entire audio frequency band in real time.
The conventional information playback apparatus allows the user to know the status of playback from variations in numerical value of the elapsed track time. However, it is practically difficult to see the status of playback readily or by intuition by looking at numerical values which vary every moment. That is, when the user looks at the numerical value indicative of the elapsed track time which changes from a value to another, his or her human sense cannot help much understand the status of playback by intuition.
Additionally, consider the information playback apparatus which displays in real time the frequency spectrum of playback sounds over the entire audio frequency band. In this case, what is done by the apparatus is just to indicate the frequency spectrum of the current playback sound which is being delivered from a loudspeaker or headphone. That is, only the frequency spectrum of a momentary playback sound is displayed as a variation in level within the audio frequency band.
In this context, suppose that the user wishes to know the entire feature of a music selection from beginning to end by playing back a musical CD, for example. In this case, it is difficult to know the overall feature of the music selection by watching the a frequency spectrum of playback sounds which changes every moment.
More specifically, a music selection contains features such as “chorus” or a portion of feeling which strongly appeals to human sense, an introductory portion provided to emphasize the portion or “chorus”, and an ending which makes the music selection suggestive. Music and words of the music are composed such that these various features are organically related to each other to appeal to the user's sense. However, it was impossible to know the aforementioned various features of the entire music selection only by looking at the frequency spectrum of playback sounds which changes every moment.